Tracking
by SilverCrystal029
Summary: When Logan slips out from the mansion unannounced, Rogue decides to see what the mysterious loner is up to. Suspicious and weary of everything after joining the institute, she learns a lot about him she doesn't expect. one shot


There were a lot of things Rogue wanted to like about Logan. Make her take two big steps off the ledge and actually _try_ to trust. He had kind eyes, a strong handshake, and a paternal energy she actually felt comfortable around (there hadn't been many men in Rogue's life with two mothers). But, there were things about him she forced herself to confront. Now, before they came back bite her later. He didn't explain himself to anybody. Rogue is an expert observer. The few days she and Scott thawed out, she was silently watching and learning, about everyone.

Logan is not in a place where he has to answer to them, the students. But, she's clocked his refusal to give an inch, not even to Charles. He leaves abruptly. Often. He never takes a car, he screams away on a bike. Sometimes, for days at a time. Then he returns with few words. Mystique is in Rogue's head. She knows she has groomed her and made inherently distrustful. Paranoid. Defensive. This is her plan at work, making she she can't connect with the X-Men and will one day return to her.

Abuse was funny that way. She hadn't been allowed to ask where her caregivers were going. Why they often left her, alone. There was no way she could've known what Mystique or even Destiny were capable of, but now it was so clear to her. They had been sitting around, biding their time until her powers manifested. Then, she was shipped off to New York.

She can't help but think she could've avoided all the pain and heartbreak. She won't allow it to happen to her again. Hating how much they were alike, she leaned into Mystique's militaristic training. She waited for a rare night where Logan took off on foot. Without anyone noticing, she slips out behind him. She's seen him sniff and growl, knows she has to keep a careful distance unless she wants to be caught.

She studies his black t-shirt from afar, hiding in alley and behind street lights and prayed his superhuman senses didn't clue him in.

_She remembers being much younger, and fed up with her mothers' secrecy. Talking over her head. Shutting doors around her, leaving for days and weeks at a time. Unexplained. Rogue barely remembers the south and her memories of being Anna Marie, but she knows families aren't supposed to be like this. She's barely eleven, more sneaky on her feet than most adults. _

_Irene was a fairly normal foster mother, but it was Raven who was always testing her. Red haired and sharp eyed, Rogue was both terrified of her and desperate to impress her. Make her proud, once. Sometimes, she'd take her places for weeks on end. Then, dump her with Irene and disappear. _

_This night, she slipped into the muggy Mississippi air to find out what it was her other mother did. Rogue's hair is long and tangled around her, far before she's been told to keep it short. Her face is devoid of makeup and covered in freckles. It's hard to imagine she grew into the hard teenager she is now. She presses her back against the wall and moves carefully, nearly screaming when her mother appeared in the dark. _

_"You thought I wouldn't notice you following me?" Before the child can move, she reaches out and grabs white hair. Rogue shrieks when she pulls her close. "You want to go on secret missions, you ought to cut your hair. Or tie it back." She forcefully shoves white hair out of her face. She goes through pockets and examines hands, pale ones that won't be bare for long. "No weapons. Nothing to get you out of this situation..." _

_"A-Ah'm sorry-" _

_"But, not as sorry as you'll be when somebody else kills you for your insubordination." Her grip on her wrist tightens as she shoves the child against the brick wall. "Don't you see where we are? Not a very good area for a little girl to be." Rogue's teeth chatter as she tries to escape her grasp. _

_"O-Ouch, m-" _

_"What have I told you." Her voice sends chills down Rogue's spine. "Say it." _

_"A-Ah'm too important t-" _

_"Your work hasn't even begun." Rogue stifles a whimper as Raven drags her, all the way back to Destiny's yellow house. Rogue can't describe the embarrassment she feels as she shows up, tears streaming involuntarily down her face. Irene frowns at them, but she didn't defend or stick up for the girl when Mystique is still gripping her arm tight. "You're gonna remember the things I say, one day. And, you'll see I was right. Go to your room." _

_Rogue silently stomped on the stairs and the shapeshifter waited to hear a door slam before she reverted to her true, blue form. Irene can't see, but she wraps an arm around Mystique when she shudders. "I am a monster. I am destroying, he-" She stops speaking when she touches her face, gently. _

_"You are saving her life, Raven. You know what my visions have shown. She will need the harshest conditioning imaginable." The woman pushes dark flashes of the future from her head. "Rogue's power will decide the fate of the world, maybe the universe. If you train her as you are, now..." Mystique's eyes narrowed. "She might survive."_

She didn't really know any of the X-Men. Now that her powers have manifested, she has be weary of them wanting to use her, too. It won't happen, again. Her trail leads her to a rough part of town. It's not that far from the institute, but she wonders why he didn't take his bike. She ducks behind a dumpster when he approaches a woman sitting on the bench. Rogue can't see well from far away, but she has dark hair and she looks like shit.

Logan produces a sandwich from a bag he's carrying sits down next to her._ 'What?'_

"Go away, Howlett." Callisto hissed, her words slightly slurring. Logan can spot addiction a mile away. Addictive personalities, too. The pressures of her mutant organization underground was proving as stressful Charles' fledgling school. And, he knew that mutants and super-powered individuals weren't going to be secrets for much longer. There were too many of them. She needed her wits and sobriety. "I'm not in the m-"

"You reek of booze, girl. Not becomin'. And that cheap alcohol ain't covering up what you're _really_ doin' to yourself." She rubbed forearms covered in bruises and track marks.

"None of your business." She pushes the sandwich onto the ground. "Go worry about..." She's shocked when he holds out a hand of strange looking pills. "What is-"

"You know Charles has way more access and resources to things. You can take these _tonight_, and be done with that crap. Clean. Healthy. Go back where you are needed. There's a whole lot of young mutants out there... Their mutations haven't even manifested, yet." Callisto ran a shaking hand through ratty, dark hair. Her mutation was a bit strange. She didn't have claws like him, or control the weather like Storm.

Her physique and tactical abilities were above far average, but she didn't have scaley skin or wings. Mutations one could see. She was unremarkable amongst them. Definitely unequipped to protect them. "We keep tabs, on the young ones. Some of them have left since you've gone on your bender. I'm bringin' you an easy and painless fix." She snorts at that.

"Anyone ever told you that you're annoying?" He grins when she takes the medicine from him. "Don't go down there aagin, _top dweller._" He held his hands up as she swallowed the pills.

"Don't make a habit of hanging around sewers." He studies her worn appearance. "Gonna be alright?" He's not sure what he has to offer with so many issues of his own, but he'd rather not leave if she's just going to shoot up, again. Rogue gets the gist of what's going on, and all she can tell is that he tried to help the woman. Was this a stop on the way somewhere else? She truly doesn't know what to think.

He doesn't take off in the direction of the institute, only deeper into dilapidated neighborhoods. Rogue would stay in boarded up houses like this when she tried to run away, flee Mystique's terrifying regime. Fighting for space and autonomy from crackheads and drug dealers. Getting robbed and finally limping back home, which was better than that. Even, if not by much.

She hides behind a building when Logan approaches a questionable looking group of kids. Many have dropped or flunked out of school, already. Dead heads. Waste cases. Logan hated disrespectful, unambitious youth. They're all smoking something pungent in the moonlight. One of them is a mutant who crawled up from the sewers. Logan spots orange and blonde hair a mile away, growling as he cuts between the teenagers.

"Could I have a second with_ Mr. Crisp_, please." He doesn't want to rough up kids, but he will. It doesn't take much for a young person to fall down the wrong path.

"Man, chill..." One scraggly haired boy snaps.

"Yo. _Who_?"

A broad shouldered boy in a hoody stood in his way, but one snarl made him back down.

"It's okay y'all... Give me and him a moment. I'll..." Logan squints as Ray hides something quickly in his pockets. "I'll meet up with you guys later."

_'Like hell,'_ Logan thinks, but he waits until they clear before he pulls his wallet out. Rogue quirks an eyebrow as she watches him speak to the boy. She'd seen him in school a few times. "Clear your pockets, Ray. Whatever you've been doin', is done." The boy frowns, feeling weak for being offered money. Callisto had disappeared and he was one of the most able bodied Morlocks. And, nobody could look at him and tell he was different.

"Listen, Mr. Logan.. I appreciate you trying to look out, but... I've been on my own my whole life. I'm used to it. And..." He thought about old, young, sickly mutants depending on him, now. Whose lives were probably never going to be above ground. "I... Would love to join Mr. Xavier's school, but-"

"I talked to Callisto." He sees the boy's eyes widen as he studies him in the dark. "I know she's been sick, but she's gonna be better now. Woman's a better leader than she realizes, and trust me. One day and one day soon, you're gonna need her. They're gonna need more than you can slang to provide for 'em. So, work through the abandonment stuff now, because she was tearing herself up over_ y'all._" Ray's eyes narrowed slowly. He looked up to her, she was the only person who ever looked after him. And, she vanished.

"Then why would she _leave_ us?" Logan's eyes softened.

"The older you get, the more demons you carry. You don't understand, yet..." When he finally handed over the tiny bags of drugs, Logan's shoulder sagged. He stoked his chin and marveled the boy who seemed much older than his years. He reminded him of a new addition to the institute. "Or... Maybe, you do."

"I'm one of the ones who can go above ground, and... I've gotta-" He smells the tears welling in the overwhelmed boy's eyes.

"The _only_ thing you should be doing is focusing on being a kid, it's only a little while." He handed a wad of bills to Ray and Rogue watches, stunned. He can tell the boy has never seen so much money, not at once. He can tell he's been on survival mode for a long time, a lot like Rogue. He wasn't going to join them until he was good and ready, if ever. Logan's hopeful, though as he stares into his eyes. "At the very least, I won't let you play criminal. This is your life, Crisp. I'm not gonna let you flush it down the toilet." He folded arms and hardened his eyes.

Ray tucked the money in his jacket, numb with shock. "Why are you doing all this?" He looked up in surprise when Logan rested a hand on on his shoulder.

"Wish I had someone who lookin' out for me, a long time ago. The school's showed me it really does make a difference." He pushed the teenager. "Now, go on. _Home_, and..." His expression became serious. "This was no strings, but if you ever feel you're ready... If you want to, come see us." He placed a yellow communicator in his hands. "Call, any time." He would spread the word that some top dwellers weren't so bad.

_"Thank you,_ Logan."

"Sure. Now, go on. It's late." Ray sheepishly obeys, disappearing into the shadows. Logan hopes he'll call. It's a dangerous world on this side of town.

Rogue's not sure what to make of what she's seen. She was expecting to learn horrible secrets, expose some deep and dangerous flaw in Logan's morals. But, she's found quite the opposite. He walked all over town because a bike would be too much of a statement, drive these secretive people away. The Canadian man tossed the drugs into a flaming trashcan, glad he found it before Ray found real trouble.

He watches the fire's shadow dance on the wall, hands shoved into his pockets.

"You can come out now, Rogue. I've known you were there the whole time." Her mouth drops, thinking she'd managed to evade his senses after her rigorous training and patience. He turns when he hears a clatter, the movement of feet. She's standing in her skirt and tights, but a dark sweatshirt pulled over her green shirt. He figured out Kurt, Kitty, and Evan quickly after their arrivals at the institute. But, not _her._

She's already good at hiding what she's thinking, what her next move may be. Mystique trained her well. Her fists are trembling as she reveals herself, eyes anchored on the ground. She made Logan nervous. Her eyes looked much older than the sixteen or seventeen year old._ "Spyin'?"_ He regrets his word choice when he remember the girl feels they all must think she's some mole. He places his hands on his hips.

_"N-No_. Yes." He arches an eyebrow as she forces her face to stay even. She followed him halfway across the city, of course she was. "You leave_. A lot_." She doesn't say more, and she doesn't have to. Mystique's played games with him that still kept him up at night. Impersonating his enemies, his past loves, fallen friends. You name it, she's done it.

He worries for the girl's mind and for her heart. "Yeah, not really in the habit of being tailed by and_ explainin'_ myself to kids." He informs her with annoyance, a finger tapping on his arm. "What if I was trackin' a target? Someone dangerous, like Mystique? You could've been killed." When he growls at her out of worry, she drops to one knee. A squint makes a small scar on her neck, clearer.

He's seen the way she fights and trains, like a dog. Savagely. More hungry than anyone else on the team. She's right handed but swings far harder with her left fist. Maybe, her right wrist had a previous injury or fracture. Her fighting stance is near perfect, but she favored her right side heavily. Things Logan noticed but never paid attention to made sense, now. "Sorry." She says, biting her tongue so her eyes don't well. Mystique hated fear. Tears. "Ah'll learn. Ah won't do it again." She says like she's said it a hundred time. She flinches when Logan moves, but only to kneel by her side.

She looks up when he places a hand on her shoulder. "Don't make a habit of smackin' around kids, _either_." Again, she's shocked as he pulls her to her feet. "Listen, kid..." His stare on her face was intent, disturbed. "I don't know what happened to you when you were with Mystique or before. I don't talk much, but I'll _listen."_ He knows the ones who speak the least might have the most they need to say. "But, the school... The X-Men, Charles. _Nobody's_ gonna make you do anything you don't feel comfortable doing. You don't have to earn your care by doing whatever we say. Charles wants to help you, kids just like you." After seeing how he spent his free time, Rogue's a little more inclined to believe that.

A conflicted look crosses her face as the weight of the night bares down on her. Logan_ cared._ About others who had nothing to give him. About the X-Men. About these people. Who's ever cared for her? "Irene_ raised_ me, asked me to call her momma... And, she just, she_ handed_ me off to Mystique. Why?" She shuts her eyes and dips her head, tired of pondering. But, Logan lifts her head up.

"When it comes to Mystique and the people wrapped around her finger, it's better not to wonder." The woman's memories had given Rogue a shocking lack of insight to her motivations. She left the encounter much more confused, about Mystique and about herself. He reads the expression on her face. "What's important is that _you're_ not, anymore. What happens next is up to you."

Slowly, he wrapped an arm around her. When she consents, he lays it there. "Nobody's gonna make you do anything you don't wanna do, or hurt you for doin' something wrong. _But,_" Rogue smiled sheepishly as they both started walking. He arches an eyebrow. "That doesn't mean you won't get_ grounded._ I'll give you a pass for sneakin' halfway decently." He eyed his watch with a scoff.

"Okay. Sorry for followin' you."

"Well, you must've gone without dinner because _I_ have. Wanna find a twenty four hour diner?" He saw a girl at a crossroads, armed already with enough power to do so much good _or_ bad. Right now, her only example to follow was Mystique. This night, he's decided to change that. For the first time besides Scott, someone cared. She rubbed an arm, but her smile is small.

"Yeah, sure." She's only ever seen the man drink coffee and eat apples off his claws. He could be pretty elusive when he wanted to be. The more she thought about it, the more she began to realize they had in common. Both loners, both at their cores terrified of hurting people. Feeling like maybe, they aren't the ones who get to be around people. Not like everyone else.

He can't take away the neglect Rogue's faced. The abuse and gas lighting she's endured. The hurt she's gone through that could never heal. He may not be capable of giving the girl what she needs after being shunned by everyone who should've cared for her. There may not be an answer. A fix. But, walking silently under streetlights, they said more than they had with words. More than either of them had in a long time.


End file.
